Chapter 5 Blood Moon Ritual (Part 3)

📖 Moonblooded: The Alpha's Cursed Mate

Chapter 3: Blood Moon Ritual (Part 3)

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The following morning...

Shivana awoke before dawn.

The moon was gone, and with it, the heat in her shoulder. For the first time in days, her body felt... still. But her mind?

Not even close.

She slipped from the bed, careful not to make a sound. Kade wasn't there, but his scent lingered - dark pine, cold iron, and the faint trace of something sweeter, something warm beneath all that frost. The scent had haunted her dreams.

She padded silently toward the old wooden bookshelf in the far corner of the room. Dozens of ancient leather-bound books sat in perfect rows. She let her fingers brush across the spines until one drew her in: The Moonblooded Lineage.

Her heart skipped.

She opened it slowly.

The pages were brittle, ink faded by time. But the illustrations were sharp. Symbols. Moons. Wolves cloaked in silver flames. Names - dozens of them - all crossed out.

Except one.

> "The Last Moonblooded: Shivana of Nightfang. Prophesied bearer of the Final Flame."

She froze.

Final Flame? Last?

Was this why they feared her? Why she had been kept in the dark? Why the Elders whispered behind closed doors?

She flipped the page - and saw a sketch that made her blood freeze.

A girl standing beneath the Blood Moon, hands lifted, a village burning behind her... her mark glowing on her shoulder.

Her. It was her.

"You found it."

She turned.

Kade stood in the doorway, arms crossed. He looked tired - shadows under his eyes, jaw tense.

"You knew," she said. "You knew what I was."

"I suspected," he replied. "But I wasn't sure. Until last night."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because truth is dangerous," he said, walking toward her. "And because once you know who you are, others will know too."

"I don't understand. What is the Final Flame?"

He exhaled slowly. "It's a prophecy. A cursed line of wolfblood that ends with you. They say when the Final Flame awakens, so does the war that ends the Packs."

She swallowed. "And what does that make me? A weapon?"

"No," he said. "It makes you a threat."

Her hands trembled.

All her life, she'd just wanted to belong. To feel seen. But now that she was, it wasn't love or family she'd found.

It was a war.

"I'm not your enemy," she said quietly.

Kade's expression cracked-just for a heartbeat. Then he stepped closer.

"I know."

His voice had softened. And his eyes... no longer cold. Just tired. Lonely.

Shivana looked up at him, her breath catching in her throat.

"Then why do you keep looking at me like I'm going to break you?"

"Because," he whispered, "I think you already are."

And before she could respond, his hand brushed her cheek.

Just a whisper of a touch.

Warm.

Real.

Dangerous.

Her heart thundered.

And for one terrifying moment... she didn't want to pull away.

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